JERUSALEM -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- It was supposed to be a pleasant surprise , but turned into the shock of a lifetime .

A woman scours a garbage heap in Tel Aviv for her mother 's missing mattress .

A woman in Tel Aviv , Israel , gave her elderly mother a new mattress as a surprise gift , throwing out the old tattered bed her mother had slept on for decades . The gesture ended up bankrupting Annat 's mother , who had stuffed her savings of nearly $ 1 million inside her old bed for decades , Annat told Israel Army Radio .

A massive search is under way at the city dump , where security has been beefed up to keep out treasure-seekers who have heard Annat 's story in Israeli media .

Annat , who did not want to reveal the rest of her name , told Israel Army Radio that she woke up early Sunday to get a good deal on a new mattress as a surprise for her mother .

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She fell asleep that night , exhausted after lugging up the new mattress and hauling down the old one to be taken out with the trash .

When her mother realized the next day what her daughter had done , she told her that she had been using the mattress to stash away her life savings and had nearly $ 1 million padding the inside of the worn-out mattress . Watch more on the mattress search ''

Annat ran downstairs , but it was too late . The garbage truck had already taken away the money-stuffed mattress .

Annat alerted the two major dump sites in the Israeli city in an effort to locate the bed , but so far she has had no luck . Yitchak Burba , one of the dump site managers , told Army Radio that he and his men are working relentlessly to try to help Annat find the million-dollar mattress among the tons of garbage at the landfill .

The publicity has triggered a wave of people also trying to find the mattress and its contents for themselves . Burba has increased security around the dump to keep them out .

Annat told Army Radio that when her mother realized her queen-sized bank had been tossed , she told her to '' ` leave it . ' ''

'' ` The heart is crying but you know we could have been in a car accident or had a terminal disease , ' '' Annat said her mother told her .

Annat is also taking the situation in stride .

`` It 's a very , very sad story but I 've been through worse , '' she told Army Radio . `` It 's a matter of proportions in life ... people need to know how to accept the good and the bad in life . ''

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Israeli woman loses $ 1M as daughter dumps mattress containing life savings

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Security increased at city dump in Tel Aviv as search under way for mattress

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Publicity has triggered wave of people trying to find mattress and its contents